It is true that studies on task have focused on the macro-skills such as speaking or listening. But recent studies prove that reading tasks can play an important role during reading and the type of reading tasks affects reading comprehension. In addit...
It is true that studies on task have focused on the macro-skills such as speaking or listening. But recent studies prove that reading tasks can play an important role during reading and the type of reading tasks affects reading comprehension. In addition to task type, text type has also been studied as a factor affecting reading comprehension. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of task type and text type during reading on reading comprehension of learners of Korean.
The research questions of this study were as follows:
1. Will task type during reading have a significant effect on reading comprehension?
2. Will text type during reading have a significant effect on reading comprehension?
3. Will task type and text type during reading have the effect of interaction?
4. Will reading comprehension vary according to the type of reading comprehension?
In order to answer the research questions, this study ran an experiment with 32 students studying Korean in two Korean university-affiliated language institutes from October 10 to October 17, 2007. This experiment performed a 2×2 ANOVA on the data and adopted the repeated-measures design. The study includes two independent variables such as task type (i.e., semantic mapping and prediction task) and text type (i.e., expository text and narrative text). The dependent variable was a multiple-choice reading comprehension test composed of specific comprehension, general comprehension, and inferential comprehension. The text difficulty, text familiarity, task difficulty, and usefulness of task were investigated by a questionnaire after performing a task.
The participants of this study were divided into two groups: The group for semantic mapping and the group for prediction task. Each group was given the pretest and performed each task for their groups. They also filled in the questionnaire. After the treatment, they were given the reading comprehension test.
The major findings of this study were as follows:
First, task type during L2 reading did not affect reading comprehension. There was not a significant difference between the mean of semantic mapping group and that of prediction task group.
Second, text type during L2 reading had an significant effect on reading comprehension. The mean of those reading narrative text was higher than that of expository text, and the means of the two groups were significantly different.
Third, task type and text type did not have the effect of interaction. Therefore, task type and text type during L2 reading affected reading comprehension independently.
Forth, the type of reading comprehension was affected by task type. Text type did not have an effect on the type of reading comprehension, but task type did so significantly, among specific comprehension, general comprehension, and inferential comprehension.
The results of this study can be used as guidelines for designing reading materials. In the beginning level, comprehensible narrative texts are appropriate to read and in the intermediate or advanced level more expository texts should be available. Also, the type of reading comprehension is affected by task type and this result should be considered in selecting tasks in textbook or in class for reading.
This study is organized as follows. Chapter I presents the purpose and necessity of this study and the explanations of related terms. Chapter II provides a theoretical description of L2 reading compared with L1 reading and the two main factors such as task type and text type. This chapter also reviews general studies about teaching reading for learners of Korean and experimental studies on the effects of task and text. Chapter III describes the method of this study, which includes information on overall design, participants, materials, procedures, and data analysis. Chapter IV analyzes and discusses the results of the experiment and Chapter V describes the summary of the results, implications for teaching Korean as foreign language studies, limitations of the study, and suggestions for following studies.